I keep wondering when Nintendo will get back into VR — I asked Shigeru Miyamoto about it earlier this year, in fact. Well, Nintendo’s going back to VR, sort of: the Virtual Boy is back, baby. Retro games and a Virtual Boy accessory for the Switch and Switch 2 are coming Feb. 17 next year.
The Virtual Boy was one of several things the company announced for Mario’s 40th anniversary in a Direct livestream Friday, including new remasters of Super Mario Galaxy 1 and 2.
The failed 1996 stereoscopic game console was one of the long-lost weird wonders of Nintendo history, revived in recent years with an emulator that enabled games to be played on modern VR headsets. Nintendo’s making it an official part of the Switch experience, though, with a new library of Switch Online games for Virtual Boy. There’s a new red and black accessory you’ll need to play the games, too.
While the games are free (with a subscription), the accessory will cost you: $100 for the authentic plastic recreation, or $25 for the cardboard version.
The plastic Virtual Boy accessory shown off by Nintendo for the Nintendo Direct looks exactly like the old Virtual Boy, bulky and weird as ever. The Nintendo Switch or Switch 2 will fit in it to play the 3D black and red games. There’s also a cardboard version for playing the games, too, presumably at a much lower price than whatever the plastic Virtual Boy recreation will cost.
The games themselves will be part of the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service. Nintendo’s promising 14 titles released over time, including Tetris.
Nintendo has a long history of dabbling in VR. Nintendo Labo VR, released in 2019, was also a cardboard kit for the Switch that played a variety of VR games with cardboard accessories. The Nintendo 3DS had its own 3D display (but no Virtual Boy games), and shipped with AR games at launch. At Univeral’s theme parks, the Mario Kart ride already uses an AR visor to project overlaid experiences. The Mario Kart Live RC car game uses built-in AR effects, too.
I wondered if Nintendo would ever support a plug-in VR or AR headset for the Switch 2, and so far Nintendo hasn’t indicated any interest — the Switch 2 won’t even work with plug-in display glasses without a bulky adapter. But the Virtual Boy shows Nintendo’s still curious… or nostalgic. Or both. I’ll see you next year with this on my face for a full review.
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